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ADP vs Gusto
March 17, 2025 | Author: Adam Levine
17★
Fast, easy, and designed specifically for small businesses. From payroll and tax filing to HR, time tracking, and more, ADP helps Small Business succeed. Running a small business is 24/7 job. That’s why we make it easier with simple, reliable small business payroll and expert HR management services to help you make better, more informed decisions about your business.
13★
Gusto’s people platform helps businesses like yours onboard, pay, insure, and support your hardworking team. Payroll, benefits, and more.
Payroll is one of those things that nobody wants to think about but everybody absolutely needs. Both ADP and Gusto have dedicated themselves to making this tedious process slightly less painful, like inventing a particularly efficient brand of aspirin for accountants. They both handle tax filing, benefits administration, direct deposits and other bureaucratic sorcery. They also integrate with accounting software, which means that, in theory, a company’s financial data can be shuffled around automatically instead of being mismanaged manually. In short, they do similar things but in slightly different ways, much like a tortoise and a hoverboard both technically provide transportation.
ADP, being a venerable institution from 1949, has been around long enough to have payroll solutions for absolutely everyone—small businesses, giant corporations and possibly even intergalactic trade federations. It operates internationally, which means that if you accidentally hire an employee on Mars, ADP is more likely to have a plan for that. Its software is robust, customizable and packed with so many features that using it can feel a bit like piloting a spaceship—powerful, but requiring a few manuals and possibly an engineer.
Gusto, on the other hand, appeared in 2012 with the bright-eyed optimism of a startup that believes payroll should be easy and for small-to-medium businesses in the U.S., it actually is. It’s cloud-based, automated and generally designed so that even someone who once lost their tax documents in the fridge can use it. However, it doesn’t venture beyond American borders and its HR tools, while friendly and approachable, don’t quite match the sheer scale of ADP’s interplanetary command center. Still, for many businesses, Gusto is less about commanding a fleet and more about making sure Steve from accounting gets paid on time without having to summon an IT specialist.
See also: Top 10 HRM Software
ADP, being a venerable institution from 1949, has been around long enough to have payroll solutions for absolutely everyone—small businesses, giant corporations and possibly even intergalactic trade federations. It operates internationally, which means that if you accidentally hire an employee on Mars, ADP is more likely to have a plan for that. Its software is robust, customizable and packed with so many features that using it can feel a bit like piloting a spaceship—powerful, but requiring a few manuals and possibly an engineer.
Gusto, on the other hand, appeared in 2012 with the bright-eyed optimism of a startup that believes payroll should be easy and for small-to-medium businesses in the U.S., it actually is. It’s cloud-based, automated and generally designed so that even someone who once lost their tax documents in the fridge can use it. However, it doesn’t venture beyond American borders and its HR tools, while friendly and approachable, don’t quite match the sheer scale of ADP’s interplanetary command center. Still, for many businesses, Gusto is less about commanding a fleet and more about making sure Steve from accounting gets paid on time without having to summon an IT specialist.
See also: Top 10 HRM Software
